Ashton surrendered a two goal lead for the second time in three days as the visitors from the North East recovered in the second half to share the spoils.

It took just eight minutes for leading scorer Matty Chadwick to curl home a superb effort with the outside of his left foot from Nicky Platt’s lay-off. Just a minute later, Jacobs himself strode forward and forced a low save out of Maddison.

Nicholson followed a decent run across the area by firing narrowly wide of the right hand post and O’Hanlon’s pass saw David Syers advance on Pilling, who gathered at the second attempt.

Midway through the half, Regan’s long cross-field pass picked out Bradley Jackson, who cut inside before finding the top corner on his left foot for his second goal in as many appearances. On the restart, Thomson reached the byline and saw Pilling hold Styche’s header but on eight minutes, Styche’s run into the area was checked by Jacobs with Thomson confidently converting the spot kick.

Tomsett was then stopped in the area by Burn with no award forthcoming. Chadwick then made a great run to the byline and saw Craig Hobson help his cross just past the far post.

With 17 minutes left, a free kick into the area saw Regan’s header controlled by Hobson, who turned and rattled the crossbar with the ball bouncing down on the goal line.

This could have been the turning point as Styche’s speculative attempt was saved by Pilling but Saunders was on hand to tap home the rebound.

Aaron Chalmers’ cross was then just fisted out by Maddison, ahead of John McAtee.

Ashton make the journey to AFC Telford Utd this weekend, who are third in the table on 15 points, having enjoyed a decent start to the campaign under manager Gavin Cowan, which includes four victories.